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“The entire situation smells like a bad TV movie,” observes a cynical podcaster during the chilling follow-up Influencers. In the moment, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee whose outlandish story he previously said he trusted. But his assessment of what’s happening in the movie isn't inaccurate. Superficially, a pair of streaming movies chronicling a young woman who worms her way into the worlds of online influencers and then murders them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry yet cable-ready Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect about Influencers is just how superior it is compared to much of the competition, regardless of where you watch it. It is precisely the thriller capable of giving its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects traveling alone social media targets, lures them to their doom, and covers up those deaths (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their socials. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This provides 2025's Influencers some early ambiguity, as returning filmmaker the director picks up with the character CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking their first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW's attention and anger.

CW comments to her partner that a person ought to attempt leaving a device-obsessed online personality somewhere with no technology and see if they can make it. Is this an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the special treatment given to one fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ chronological position. The story revisits Madison, who has been exonerated for committing CW’s crimes, yet still encounters doubt over her version of the events, including the murder of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to boost his profile as part of a right-wing-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the curated images that typically capture CW's interest.

Naud remains immensely captivating in the part, a role that appears particularly tailor-made to her strengths. (She even created CW's striking outfits.) Although the follow-up's screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the first film felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still works as a story of dueling investigators, with both women employ fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to chase or evade each other. Of course, perhaps the vast resources aren't needed. Influencers have a knack for gaining access to posh places at little cost, an ability that CW echoes through her more blatant scheming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers appear equally resourceful in locating beautiful places to film, though they were presumably less nefarious about it. Most of the movie seems to be filmed in real places, giving it an authentic gravity that remains even when numerous sequences involve a handful of actors of characters staring at digital devices.

It’s the same principle which allowed the James Bond movies appear so persistently lavish for decades: Indeed, big action and visual effects can display large spending, but just providing a travelogue of sorts for the audience also feels inherently cinematic. This is especially fitting for a narrative so rooted in the simultaneous superficial glamour and try-hard grind of creating jealousy-worthy digital content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, similar to those staying in Thailand in the original, appear to enjoy entry to impossibly chic modern bungalows; there are movies about lifeguards that don’t show off as much aerial pool video. These individuals must believably occupy these luxurious, remote places to highlight the uneasy irony of how often everyone — including the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nonetheless devotes much time in the glow of their screens.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a screed against the emptiness of the influencer industry. Though it can be gratifying to watch CW manipulate various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment lets us to wish she doesn’t get caught, Harder is somewhat understanding of the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he keyed into the isolation Madison felt during ostensibly dream getaways. Here, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob at work will make it clear that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids caricaturing the character further. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect by showing his genuine loyalty to his partner; he’s a hypocrite, yet Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not someone exploited of it.

The other side of this balanced approach is that it can sometimes appear that he is acknowledging bits of modern online life without investigating them further. This is particularly evident of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, an intriguing development which misses the psychosexual kick it deserves. The pluralized title of Influencers could offer devotees of the original hope for a larger-scale escalation, and the movie does eventually provide exactly that, with a suitably wild final act. But before that, it resembles more a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than an frenzied, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations might also be what prevents it from seeming like utter horror. The world might be saturated with always-online creators, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself remains present, for now.